Falling Feels Like Flying (Until You Hit The Ground)
by Hollyleaf The Black Cat
Summary: A collection of loosely connected drabbles following Bruce and Diana's relationship after the end of Dawn of Justice.
1. silence

**Author's Note:** So this was originally published on my AO3 last April not long after BVS came out. BVS does have it's flaws but Bruce and Diana weren't one of them. They were my favorite characters and had great chemistry and I've been a Wonderbat shipper since the days of the animated TV show so I'm really excited to see more of their interactions in Justice League later this year. Anyway this is a work in progress and I hope to get back into writing for this as the year goes on. For now though enjoy! Also the title of this comes from the song "Parachute" by Chris Stapleton.

* * *

The car ride from the funeral is quiet but after all that has happened Diana doesn't really mind. There's something about the silence that is so serene, otherworldly almost, and, for a moment, memories of Themyscira come to her mind.

As she looks out the window at the fields of dying corn stalks though, she knows that this will never be Themyscira. This place will never know of such peacefulness, she thinks. At least not as long as hate and greed and evil men exist in it. She wonders if Bruce would agree.

She glances over at him, his eyes locked onto the road, not even acknowledging her stare. She can tell by the look in his eyes that he's deep in thought and she wonders what it is that he's thinking about. The battle? Clark's death? The others like them? This fight he feels is coming? It could be an infinite number of things yet she's pretty sure if she asked he would say it was nothing.

Diana keeps her gaze on him for a moment longer. She notices the greys his hair, the dullness in his eyes and she finally realizes it. She thought he was like any other mortal man she's met but she's learned that's not true. He's lived the equivalent of a thousand lives, fought the equivalent of a thousand wars, died the equivalent of a thousand times. All over the span of some 20 years, over the span of what would feel like a single grain of sand in the hourglass of her own life.

Diana can't help but wonder what's done this to him. What has made him so tough yet so weary? What was it in this world that shaped him into the Batman? What horrors has he seen over the years? What has he lost over the years? Who has he lost over the years? And of course the most important question, what was it that's inspired him to keep fighting, to start this new team?

She contemplates asking him but decides against it as she stares back out at the flat Kansas landscape.

For better or worse, she's decided to go with him on this journey. She's decided to find those who would probably prefer to be hidden like she was. So, she knows eventually that she'll find a time to ask him.

For now, she'll just enjoy the silence.

* * *

Reviews and constructive criticism are much appreciated!


	2. doors

**Author's Note:** This chapter was originally published in April on AO3. Enjoy!

* * *

Their travels start quickly, fueled by Bruce's insistence that a great evil is coming. Once, Diana tries to ask him how he knows this but he just quietly shrugs the questions away. It's then she realizes that it will probably be a little while before he'll totally come to trust her with certain parts of himself. She's okay with this of course; there are still parts of herself she won't let him see yet.

During their travels they stay in only the best hotels of course. I mean what would people say if billionaire Bruce Wayne checked in at some roadside motel? Diana certainly doesn't mind this, especially since she's been living in hotels since she returned to the world of man.

Their rooms are always separate yet still connected by two doors in the middle. Diana always sits in silence in her room, browsing the news and such on her laptop. She finds the television to be too much noise than she wants most of the time.

Bruce listens to the news of the TV, she notices. In the quiet of her own room it's not hard to hear the noise in his. She wonders if perhaps he prefers that little bit of noise, not much but enough, so that it's never silent enough for him to get caught up in his own thoughts, his own fears. He always turns it off those when they bring up the death of Superman though. She guesses that neither the outer world nor his inner world is ready to let that leave him.

"You know, if you ever want to talk," she starts once while they are down at the bar.

He interrupts her. "About what?"

Diana shrugs, trying to act nonchalant about the subject. "Whatever you want to."

Bruce just looks at her over his glass as he takes a sip and for some reason Diana feels that not much else is going to be said about it.

So, she finishes the rest of her drink and places her hand on his arm. "My door is open." With that she leaves him there alone, mulling over her words.

Her door is open and she keeps it that way, even though his is always closed. As she lies on her bed, flipping through a book she picked up at the airport about a man named William Moulton Marston, she hears his door open and listens to his footsteps as he enters his room.

She can hear him wondering around for moment, the walls not as thick as one would think. Then she hears his footsteps stop and notices a shadow coming from under his door.

Dianna can't see him but she can imagine him on the other side of the door, hand hovering over the knob, debating about whether or not to open it. She knows he knows that the moment he does he's opening more doors than just the physical one between them.

His shadow lingers for a moment longer and then retreats. Maybe he'll try again tomorrow or the next day.

Whenever he does decide he trusts her though, her door will still be open.

* * *

Reviews and constructive criticism are much appreciated!


	3. conquest

**Author's Note:** So here is the lastest chapter of this story. It was published on AO3 in June of last year if that tells you anything about how slow I am at updating. Enjoy!

* * *

Diana enjoys reading the news every morning but she never thought that she'd been in it. Especially not in a tabloid article.

Her and Bruce are downstairs in the hotel's restaurant eating some breakfast before they head out later to try and find the young man in the convenience store footage. Diana's got her laptop in front of her while Bruce is flipping through his smartphone.

"Who is Bruce Wayne's New Mystery Woman?" reads the title of the article. Under it are two blurry pictures from two different occasions of her and Bruce leaving the hotel.

Honestly Diana's not too surprised that this had happened. Bruce is a famous man and she knows that the press is probably not far away wherever they go. Sooner or later she knew someone would be talking.

She continues to read:

 _Seems like Bruce Wayne has a new lady in his life. The somewhat secretive Gotham billionaire was spotted leaving two different hotels with the same woman and some sources say that these aren't the only times the two have been seen together._

 _So who is this woman? Some say that she's Diana Prince, famous on the antiques dealing scene. Considering Wayne's many properties and offices, it probably not that hard to figure out how they've met._

 _Now the real question: will this relationship be a lasting one or will Ms. Prince just be added to an ever growing list of Wayne's conquests?_

As Diana finishes, she looks over her laptop to watch Bruce's reaction as she's pretty sure he's reading it too when he frowns and his brow furrows in anger.

"Sorry about…this," he says when he's done reading it.

Diana just waves it away with her hand. "Do not worry. I am honestly a little surprised it didn't happen earlier."

"Still," says Bruce.

Diana can tell he's wondering if it's upset her. And while Diana doesn't like the fact that they're just labeling her off as some item to Bruce, she's been back in the world of man long enough to see that's just how things are for some reason. So she doesn't let it get to her.

"Bruce," begins Diana, "I do not care what these people have to say about me. It is like I told you before: You have never known a woman like me and neither have they. Their opinions do not matter."

She closes her laptop and takes the last bite of her muffin before standing up, ready to head back upstairs but not before she tells Bruce one more thing.

"Besides, I am no man's conquest. I am the conqueror."

She grins at him as she walks off and the look he gives her as she watches her says he knows she's absolutely right.

* * *

So like I said in the beginning I hope to start updating this story again this year. So watch for that. Anyway, as always reviews and constructive criticism are much appreciated! See y'all next chapter! ;D


	4. association

**Author's Note:** So I'm trying to get back into writing but it's not going so well. This is probably garbage (and you can tell me that if you feel that way) but it's the first thing I've written in months and it just kinda felt good to write and update something. Also sorry this didn't have any real Bruce/Diana moments. I'm kinda trying to get this to have a flow despite being a bunch of drabbles and I felt that the stuff from Suicide Squad would be something interesting to address.

* * *

She was right when she said that the others didn't want to be found.

Every lead they get, every road they follow ends up being a dead end and it quickly becomes frustrating to Bruce. He's the world's greatest detective; how hard should finding three people be?

However, things take a turn when an incident occurs in Midway City. The government kept it hush-hush when it was happening but the all-knowing Bruce tells her about what went down. Needless to say, she's not totally surprised that the government tried to hide things but it does bother her a little bit.

"Even with the evacuation, innocent people could have been killed," begins Diana. Then she remembers what he said about the Enchantress's army. "Some of them were."

"That's just how these people operate," says Bruce. "We're talking about a woman who left criminals clean up the mess."

Diana understands that's just how some humans are by nature but still she can't help but frown. How could this Amanda Waller woman be so cold, so cruel? Would humans ever learn from their mistakes?

Bruce takes notice of her obvious displeasure but doesn't say anything about it. Instead he changes the subject. "I found a way to find out exactly who our meta-humans are."

"Really?" Diana perks up at this news.

One would think that with all his technology Bruce could've easily identified the men in the videos but they quickly found out that the government made sure that couldn't happen. Facial recognition software couldn't identify them. Hacking attempts into security feeds kept getting blocked by government software. Then of course there was no way they could get into the government's database; they assumed Lex did it from some kind of backdoor what with his company's government contracts but Bruce didn't have any of those.

Bruce nods. "Someone needed something from me and I needed this information from them. I'm going to meet them tonight."

"Do you want me to come with you?" she asks.

He hesitates for a second but then shakes his head. "It's best if I go alone."

Diana just nods to show she understands but due to his hesitation she's become curious about his meeting. Still, she's not going to interrogate him about it. She simply lets him go.

Hours later, she hears him enter his hotel room. He'd left his door open so that they could talk when he got in. She gets up from the desk where she's doing some antiques research and goes to stand in his doorway. He's in the process of unbuttoning his sleeves but he gestures to a skinny booklet laying on the bed.

"There it is. All the information we need."

Diana walks over to his bed and takes a seat; he watches her carefully as she does, a little surprised by it.

"Take a look over it," he begins as he heads to the bathroom.

The booklet has the words TOP SECRET scrolled across it in two different places and she notices the governmental seal in the middle. Easy to figure out where Bruce's source works.

When she opens it, her eyes meet the lifeless ones of the girl known as Enchantress. Honestly, Diana's a little surprised that this girl stirred up so much trouble that the government had to hide it but then she thinks about when she first came to the world of man and her strength was underestimated. Not only that but Diana knows magic is always a game changer.

She begins reading about the girl (June Moone per the report) and that's when a name signed at the bottom of the report catches her eye. Amanda Waller. The woman Bruce told her had set up the Task Force X, the woman Bruce said was covering up the Midway City attack.

Diana tells herself that Bruce could've gotten these from someone else but a part of her knows that's not true. She's not mad at him for associating with people like this; she knows his connections are an asset and that the politics of all this are just part of the job. Still, she almost feels dirty for negotiating with people like this Waller woman.

But, as she's come to realize over the last 100 years, the world's view of good and bad isn't black and white anymore.

It's grey.


End file.
